In a change of a production system to a small production system of producing many kinds of products, it has been an important theme to provide labels which can be easily used for the management of products, half-finished goods, parts, etc., made of heat-resistant plastics, metals, glasses, burned ceramics, etc.
Hitherto, a label obtained by forming a pattern with an ink containing a glass powder on a label substrate formed using a glass powder and an organic binder having a burn off property, temporarily adhering the label substrate having formed thereon the pattern to an article, and burning the assembly to form a burned pattern on the material is known as the labels used for the above purposes.
The above label is flexible, can form a pattern according to circumstances, and can fix a burned pattern on an article under a burning treatment. Accordingly, various problems caused by a label of a type using a substrate composed of a burned ceramic, a metal, a porcelain enamel, etc., such as the problem of lacking in an easily fixing property due to a complicated fixing work such as screwing, etc., the problem of lacking in an adhesive property to a curved surface due to the rigidity of the substrate, the problem of lacking in an expedient forming property of labels due to the difficulty of forming patterns on the spot, the problem of lacking in the formation of various kinds of labels necessary for the management, etc., of various parts under a small production system of producing many kinds of products, etc., can be overcome.
However, in the conventional label described above, there is a problem to require a burning treatment of the glass powder contained in order to fix the applied pattern by exhibiting the weather resistance and the heat resistance of the label substrate. Also, the burning treatment gives a problem that a part of the organic binder having a burn off property contained in the label substrate is carbonized at burning to change the opacifying strength, whereby the contrast with the pattern formed is liable to lower.
Furthermore, when a large amount of a low-melting glass such as lead glass, etc., is used to conduct the burning treatment at a low temperature, there is a problem that a label which can be burned at a low temperature and has excellent resistance to chemicals cannot be obtained due to the difficulty of the occurrence of falling or disturbing of the applied pattern by the dissolution thereon in the case of immersing in a solution of an alkali, a strong acid, etc.